Support for Merkel's CDU at lowest since Nov

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GERMANY-POLL/
Support for Merkel's CDU at lowest since Nov
BERLIN, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Support for German Chancellor
Angela Merkel's conservative party has dropped to its lowest
level since November last year, a poll showed on Sunday, giving
the opposition Social Democrats a few extra points just weeks
before two regional elections.
The survey by pollsters Emnid and published by Bild am
Sonntag newspaper showed Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU)
dropped two percentage points to 31 percent.
The Social Democrats -- with whom Merkel's party had a grand
coalition in the last legislative period to 2009 -- gained two
percentage points to 29 percent, the survey showed.
Germans in two of the country's 16 federal states vote next
month: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sept. 4 and the city-state of
the capital Berlin on Sept. 18. The next federal election is due
in 2013.
SPD head and former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
ruled out another grand coalition at the weekend, telling Der
Spiegel magazine it would not happen "in the foreseeable
future", even if the Conservatives' current alliance with the
Free Democrats (FDP) were to break down.
The FDP gained one percentage point to 5 percent in the
poll, just hitting the threshold it would need to enter
parliament.
The Greens environmental party, the SPD's preferred
coalition partner, lost one percentage point to 20 percent, down
from its peak earlier this year after the Fukushima nuclear
disaster.
That puts the Social Democrats and Greens at 49 percent,
ahead of the CDU and FDP, which together stood at 36 percent.
The poll was carried out between Aug. 11 and 17 and
canvassed 2,366 people.
(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
REUTERS
1105 210811 GMT